St John the Baptist church in Madaba looks ordinary until you go down: Byzantine mosaics, an ancient well, and the layers of the city built on top of each other.
The Church of St John the Baptist in Madaba looks like an ordinary Roman Catholic church from the street. The interesting part is underneath it.
Below the floor there are chambers, passageways and an ancient well, along with Byzantine mosaic floors and archaeological remains from the city that stood here before. Madaba was built layer on layer over thousands of years, and this is one of the few places you can walk down through them.
Madaba is best known for the mosaic map of the Holy Land in St George\'s church down the road, and most visitors do that one and leave. This is the one to add. The map, and the rest of that week, is in our Amman story.
Inside the church, and above it
The Church of St John the Baptist, a good deal bigger inside than the square outside suggests.Climbing the bell tower, past a bell covered in scratched names. We resisted adding ours.The top of the tower, with the whole of Madaba underneath and the flag over the lot of it.The old vaults under the church. You can touch both walls without stretching, and Dileep proved it.
Getting here
Madaba sits on the day-tour loop out of Amman that also takes in Mount Nebo, the Baptism Site and the Dead Sea. That\'s how we did it, and it\'s the efficient way to see all four without hiring a car. We booked the Madaba, Mount Nebo, the Baptism Site and the Dead Sea in a day.
